Minnesota Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder prepares to pass during the Vikings 20-13 win over the Detroit Lions in second quarter action, Sunday, September 30, at Ford Field in Detroit. (Pioneer Press: Chris Polydoroff)

The championship ring on Brian Billick’s finger was earned through a style of play seen in few Super Bowls since. The former Baltimore Ravens coach led a team with a once-in-a-generation defense, an efficient running game and sparing contributions from the passing game.

It worked in 2000, when the Ravens beat the New York Giants in the Super Bowl. Two years later, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers made it work on their way to a Super Bowl win over the Oakland Raiders.

But can it work in the pass-happy NFL of 2012? Billick isn’t so certain.

“Sure, you can win a lot of games,” said Billick, now an NFL analyst for Fox. “But can you win a championship? That’s the $64,000 question. We’re so deep in QB play now. I’m holding a Super Bowl ring. But that’s a different time.”

If the Vikings intend to make a deep playoff run, they’ll probably have to do it by bucking a trend that’s almost become dogmatic. Since Tampa Bay won its Super Bowl, only seven teams ranked lower than 25th in passing yards have reached a conference championship game. None of them reached the Super Bowl.

The good news for the Vikings — who are 3-1 despite ranking 27th in passing offense — is that they share some commonalities with those seven teams, particularly in the way they run the ball and pressure the quarterback.

All of those teams, though, were led by young quarterbacks who faltered at inopportune times. Five of the seven — the 2011 49ers, 2010 Bears, 2009 Jets, 2008 Ravens and 2004 Steelers — started quarterbacks who were in the playoffs for the first time. The other two — the 2007 Chargers and 2004 Falcons — had quarterbacks in just their second postseason.

And in their conference championship game losses, only two of those seven quarterbacks had a passer rating over 80.

“This league is built to have a passer in the pocket making throws,” said former Buffalo Bills wide receiver Steve Tasker, who will call the Vikings’ game against the Tennessee Titans for CBS on Sunday, Oct. 7. “Sooner or later, you’re going to have to throw it when you’re backed into a corner.”

VIKINGS’ FORMULA

Of the seven teams that made a conference championship game without a top-25 passing attack, six were among the NFL’s 10 best rushing teams. All seven were in the top half of the league in scoring defense, and five were in the top 12 in sacks. That provides something of a template for the Vikings.

Minnesota is 10th in the league in rushing, fifth in scoring defense and ninth in sacks. In last week’s win over the Lions, the Vikings held the ball for 29 minutes, 18 seconds on only 56 plays. They sacked Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford five times despite running just three blitzes, allowing their young secondary to concentrate on wide receiver Calvin Johnson.

Perhaps most importantly, the Vikings aren’t turning the ball over. Christian Ponder is the only quarterback in the league without an interception this season. As ESPN NFL analyst Herm Edwards sees it, the Vikings have a formula that’s already working for a few teams.

“You can play offense this way,” said Edwards, who played 10 years in the league and was a head coach for eight. “It’s no different than the NFC West. Those teams are kind of built like the Minnesota Vikings. It’s boring football, but you set up some big plays in the passing game.”

That’s where the Vikings’ fate could hinge on Ponder, whom former Vikings quarterback and NFL MVP Rich Gannon called the most improved player in the league. Ponder has thrown for just 206 yards a game, but he has a 97.7 passer rating — better than either Manning brother, Aaron Rodgers or Drew Brees — because he has taken care of the ball and has kept drives going on third downs.

Both Billick and Gannon compare Ponder to Alex Smith in 2011, when he threw just five interceptions while leading the 49ers to the brink of the Super Bowl. And Billick cautioned that just because Ponder hasn’t had to win a game for the Vikings yet doesn’t mean he can’t.

“In that Indianapolis game (on Sept. 16), the fact of the matter is, he brought them back,” Billick said. “He led two fourth-quarter touchdown drives. The Colts ended up with one more possession, and Andrew Luck got them. But that’s not on Ponder. He responded.”

TIPPING POINT COMING?

But Ponder hasn’t had to trade scoring drives with an established quarterback in the middle of a big day. Edwards and Tasker believe that day is coming.

“It’s bound to happen,” Edwards said. “Washington (whom the Vikings play on Oct. 14) is a high-scoring team. They did a good job with Detroit, but they’ll play Detroit again. … Can they do that to Detroit twice? Green Bay, Houston, even Chicago when (Jay) Cutler’s on … all of those teams could do it.”

Several of the teams that went deep in the playoffs without a prolific passing game ultimately lost to a team that had one. Eli Manning passed for 316 yards and two touchdowns against San Francisco in last year’s NFC championship game, and Peyton Manning was 26 of 39 for 377 yards and three scores when the Colts beat the Jets in the 2010 AFC title game.

The odds don’t favor Ponder if the Vikings do make the playoffs and he finds himself in a similar situation. But the quarterback isn’t apologizing for the way the Vikings would play to get that far.

“It’s important for us to establish the run and establish the line of scrimmage,” Ponder said. “We’re going to keep doing it against every team we play.”

How far it carries them remains to be seen.

“Quarterback experience favors an Atlanta, Houston, Baltimore,” Billick said. “If you’re a betting man, you lean toward those teams, who are playing good D, running the ball and have a quantifiable quarterback. But with Ponder, that changes with every outing and the more experience he gets.”

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